House tour to help Daniel Island library

Four homes featured with authors

An upcoming tour to raise funds for the Daniel Island branch of the Berkeley County Library will offer a peak inside a range of island homes.

The Friends of the Daniel Island Library will sponsor the first Daniel Island Harvest Tour of Homes from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 25.

Four homes will be featured, three in the Daniel Island Park neighborhood and one in Smythe Park near the Daniel Island School.

"The unique feature about this is a local author or illustrator will be in each house signing books," said Pat Richards, Daniel Island Friends president.

Local authors, Prioleau Alexander, Nathalie Dupree, Michael Dahlman and illustrator Ann Marie McKay will participate.

Alexander is best known for "You Want Fries With That? A White-Collar Burnout Experiences Life At Minimum Wage." The local businessman took a year off from his white-collar job to work at near minimum wage jobs and then wrote a book about the experience. Dupree is a local author of cookbooks, Dahlman wrote a history of Daniel Island, and McKay, a local painter, has illustrated books including Julie McLaughlin's "Mr. Gator's Up the Creek" and "Hungry Mr. Gator."

Richards said the friends group is trying to involve the community in the tour, which she hopes will become an annual event. Local businesses including A Floral Affair and The Blooming Village, of Mount Pleasant, will decorate the homes.

Daniel Island Friends operates under the auspices of Berkeley County Friends of the Library and raises funds exclusively for the Daniel Island branch, which opened in 2007, and also contributes funds to the county pot.

Richards said libraries always need something.

"The library budget is being cut all the time," she said.

The friends group solicits donations to enable to library to buy things that are beyond the reach of the county budget.

Tickets to the tour are $15. A map to the homes is part of the ticket package. Tickets can be purchased at: Daniel Island Real Estate, A Floral Affair and Laura Alberts, all on Daniel Island, and at The Blooming Village Florist, the Coastal Cupboard and the Mount Pleasant Visitor's Center, all in Mount Pleasant.

Tickets are also available at the Visitor's Center in Charleston. Tickets will be available the day of the tour for $20 at the Daniel Island Library, 2301 Daniel Island Drive. To purchase tickets by mail send a check to : Friends of the Library, 121 Iron Bottom Lane, Daniel Island, S.C. 29492.